Wednesday, June 02, 2010

RailGate Returns: Will It Be Groundhog Day All Over Again...

....For Martyn Brown?


Or will Day 4 of the trial finally go down today?

And if it does, will Kevin McCullough do all the defense team's softening-up work in full-blown pit-bull mode?

And if he does will Michael Bolton bring in the heavy artillery/documentary evidence at the back end?

Or will it be a theme-based mix and match for McCullough and Bolton?

Regardless, by now I'm pretty sure that most of the jury has likely forgotten why it was, exactly, that Special Prosecutor Berar(n)dino called Premier Gordon Campbell's Chief-Of-Bowstaffs to the stand in the first place.

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Busy day for me.....So, I'll have to forgo the not-quite real-time blow-by-blow stuff for today.....The best place for that kind of information is always Mary's....I'll be back with a round-up later.


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Oh, and in case you're interested,
an old, but still excellent, backgrounder on Mr. Brown by Jody Paterson can be found archived here...... I found the following passage from that 2001 piece to be particularly illuminating: " ....Brown was known as an exceptional "policy wonk'' and researcher in his early days in government. Jess Ketchum, a political staffer from that era, takes "some of the blame'' for introducing him to the political side of things in the 1990 election, when the Socreds were heading into the fight of their lives against the New Democrats"...... Hmmmmmm.....Jess Ketchum?.....Where, exactly, have we come across that name recently?....Oh, ya....Here it is.....Bingo.


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4 comments:

North Van's Grumps said...

Jess Ketchum is also highlighted over at Public Eye.... along with .... Martyn Brown.....Patrick Kinsella

http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/000384.html

Shadowy men from a shadowy planet
November 17, 2004

RossK said...

Thanks NVG--

That is most definitely one of Mr. Holman's posts that keeps on giving.

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paul said...

I needed to look up the Brown piece the other day when a reader asked for it, and was stuck by the ending.

"Fans turn up in the strangest places. Brown has an unexpected one in Adrian Dix, who did the same job as Brown for former New Democrat premier Glen Clark.
Dix doesn't profess to know Brown well, but clearly admires him.
"In 1996, when it would have been easy for his career to go the route of joining the Liberals, he stuck with Jack Weisgerber and Reform because he was committed to that,'' Dix says. "He's not simply a political fixer. He obviously has strong beliefs.''
They're dramatically different than his own, Dix adds, but at least Brown hasn't swayed from them. That's not common in the fickle world of politics.

"I think he has greatly improved things for the Liberals,'' says Dix. "And I have to say he's a person of principle. Even if I profoundly disagree with some of them.''

(Enjoy the Goats; great show last night.)

RossK said...

Point taken Paul.

Clearly Mr. Brown has been extremely effective both from pure raw politics point of view and for successfully bringing his not-so small 'l' liberal POV to the fore within the BC large 'L' Liberal party.


Which brings something interesting to mind....Has anybody gotten a quote from Mr. Weisgerber on the HST thing?


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